Robert
W.
One BY
Gibson,
Hundred
ROBERT
M.D.
and
S. GARBER,
“INDIVIDUALLY
Fifth
President,
1976-1977
M.D.
AND
we must
COLLECTIVELY
It is a pleasure
demon-
strate through responsible action that psychiatry is a profession worthy of the public trust. These words state in a nutshell the philosophy of the man who has just completed his term as one hundred and fifth Presi‘ ‘
dent
of
the
American
Psychiatric
Association.
But
such a philosophy did not emerge full-blown when he assumed the badge of office in May 1976. Roots of his responsible, public-spiritedattitude were manifest
early
in Robert
discernible
the most and took
moved
prestigious a major
activities,
and father movers
W. Gibson’s
as he
and
Getting
life and
into
the
were
even
leadership
more
of one
becoming
a successful
and a friend
and colleague
ofa
husband
wide
circle
of
shakers.
to where
Brown
Gibson, was and a free-lance and
the
involved
the expected
occult.
factors-and also perGibson’s father, Walter a reporter on the Philadelphia
writer In
1931
of books he
would
out
Many people acknowledge Mrs. Robert
a former APA President, is President and Chief the Carrier Clinic Foundation, Belle Mead, N.J. supplied material used in this biographical their help with thanks. I am especially grateful W. Gibson, and to the following: E. Carlton
to report
updated
in the hearts
How
that
Lamont
reassuring
Walter
Gibson
Cranston
to
of men
in these
to know
that
has
tell
us
perilous both
re-
what
seven-
Bob
Gibson
and
Lamont Cranston are on the job now! Mrs. Walter Gibson, the former Charlotte Wagner, had interrupted her plans to become a professional singer in swimmer,
order to she gave
athletics.
ment
she
the
many
ous
teams
marry and raise a family. her son Bob her love ofboth
Bob
gave
remembers
him
hours
story,
she
invested
he joined
she
vividly
in his efforts
the
to excel
has
and
A fine music
encourageat sports
and
the
van-
in transporting
to competitions.
him on in his studies hopes to be a physician.
early a
Execu08502. sketch. I to Gwen, Abbott,
Ph.D., Leo H. Bartemeier, M.D., Walter E. Barton, M.D., Francis J. Braceland, M.D., Dexter M. Bullard, Sr., M.D., Robert A. Cohen, M.D., Bliss Forbush, LL.D., Benjamin H. Kesert, M.D., R. Walter Locher, W. Berkeley Mann, John C. Ritchie III, M.D., Lewis L.
Robbins, M.D., Melvin Sabshin, M.D.,John C. Sonne, M.D., Robert E. Switzer, M.D., Perry C. Talkington, M.D., Mark M. Walter, Jr., M.D., and Michael Zales, M.D.
lurks
in those
on mystery, turn
and
She
also
urged
was a strong backer of his Still a major force in the Gib-
recently
emerged
from
a bout
of bad
health and is reported to be once more in fine fettle. Bob’s magical background comes through in the comments ofthe many people whose lives touched his
mystery story whose hero was a debonair man-abouttown given to solving heinous crimes in his spare time. “The Shadow” became one ofthe most popular series of magazine stories ever published and the basis of the enormously successful radio show many of us remember from our younger days. An excellent amateur magician, Mr. Gibson was a confidant of Houdini, Raymond, Thurston, and Blackstone, and coached young Bob in the tricks of the trade. Growing up with Lamont Cranston for a sibling and famed prestidigitators for family friends has to have had an impact on the hero of this tale. Dr. Garber, tive Officer,
ties.
son
he is today
hereditary and environmental haps a little magic. Robert Ledger magic,
evil
and
of
psychiatric hospitals in the nation role in community and professional
meanwhile
vived
days,
growing-up
on. Jack
One
years.
The
cited
another
cohort
Armstrong.
the
all-American
his
contemporaries
boy, and
charisma
radio
“Right
from
making
straight
elders,
and
the
was
hero first,
As, excelling
evident
of those he
was
charming in foot-
ball, wrestling and track.” Being a guard, as he was in those days ofone-platoon single-wing play, could have helped him acquire the strength he has shown in his career-every
other
play
went
over
the
guard
in those
days. Recognition came early: he was president of his high school class and of the student council and made the Pennsylvania State wrestling finals. A younger stepbrother recalls, “He was bigger than I was and could beat the tar out of me. But I respected Bob because he took the time to help me to be an athlete good enough to play with him and his friends.” His mother described him as a boy who never wasted any time. “He was a driver and spent his time on his books, reaching out in many lines as if seeking to find out what would interest him most.” The superintendent of his high school remembers clearly an incident when Bob was asked by a teacher why he had elected to take five major subjects instead of the required four. He answered, “Well, it’s there and I might as well take advantage of it.” That was one of the considerations that led the principal to declare Am
J Psychiatiy
/34:7,
July
/977
731
ROBERT
W.
GIBSON,
M.D.
Bob Gibson one of the ten best students who ever graduated from Lansdowne High School. Bob was ahead of the recent surge of students interested in filmmaking, having become an accomplished filmmaker in the forties. He did the shooting, editing, and splicing ofhis own action films, the most adventurous of which was shot from the front seat of a toboggan racing down a slide at Lake Placid. His interest in filmmaking may have been cooled somewhat when he tried to shoot an oncoming snowball and got it full in the face.
COLLEGE
AND
MEDICAL
SCHOOL
Bob went to Lafayette, serving as president of the freshman class and becoming Middle Atlantic States light heavyweight wrestling champion. The accelerated Navy V-l2 course moved him on to Swarthmore and to service as a corpsman at the Philadelphia Naval Hospital. The young man showed his considerable ingenuity and organizational ability when he promoted a back-rubbing contest among the nurses. He and another corpsman served as judges of the various contestants’ skills; the only way they could do that was to themselves become the “rubbees.” Girl-gathering
activities
stopped
soon
afterwards,
when Bob gathered in a wife, marrying Gwendolyn Locke after his first year of medical school. Only one other of Bob’s school classmates was destined to become a physician, and he was Bob’s best friend, Gwen’s date prior to Bob, and the one who introduced the future Dr. and Mrs. Gibson. After the introduction Bob made his interest in Gwen known to his friend and the competition was on. Bob notes that both men became psychiatrists and that it was Gwen’s influence that was behind this. Gwen claims to have wondered for years whether that was a compliment or an insult! When Bob and Gwen arrived at the University of Pennsylvania Medical School, married students were still exceedingly rare birds. He was the first married man to be president of Alpha Kappa Kappa, and he and Gwen were in great demand as chaperones for fraternity parties; the rules stated only that chaperones must be married couples, not that they had to be old folks. One wonders how inclined the young newlyweds were to break up the couples who retreated to dark corners of the fraternity house. Bob’s skills as magician and craftsman are remembered by his Penn classmates. Card-playing cronies often wondered if legerdemain was a factor in his extraordinary winning streaks, but one of his often beaten friends thinks it was just skill. He recalls that Bob could replay bridge hands days later, remembering each card and the exact order of the play. Gibson resourcefulness benefited both the fraternity and the Gibsons when Bob and his stepbrother took on the job of remodeling the fraternity house kitchen. Neither of them knew one end of a hammer from the other, but the fraternity was tight on funds and so were the Gibsons. Operating at night so the building in732
Am
J Psychiatry
/34:7,
July
/977
spectors wouldn’t get wind of the amateurs at work, the brothers did the job in exchange for free board. Bob and Gwen recall eating free at the house for two and a half years, since no one was quite sure when the debt was finally paid.
ENTRY
INTO
PSYCHIATRY
Because of his accelerated program Bob graduated three months ahead of the time his internship was to begin and spent that time on the staffofTrenton State Hospital. The writer, then assistant director at Trenton, had made him an offer he couldn’t refuse: $250 a month, a furnished apartment, and ajob for Gwen. It was
a fateful
time
for
the
profession
and
a memorable
period for the writer, who watched Bob’s growing involvement in the plight of the psychiatric patient. A former classmate recalls his own years on a biochemistry
then ture. were been
fellowship
when
he
talked
with
Bob,
by
doing his residency, about their plans for the fu“I remember Bob talking then about how people basically good, but that their goodness had often blocked from developing because of events
which
had
made
them
into
hostile
or
mixed-up
people.” Colleagues in his later career confirm that he has maintained that basic faith in the goodness of human nature. We can be pleased that this view of humankind rather than The Shadow’s sinister opinion prevailed in his thinking. While he was on duty at the Bethesda Naval Hospital, Bob was recruited for residency at Chestnut Lodge. The recruiter was then tapped himself for the National
Institute
of
Mental
Health.
“I
told
myself
that I should be pleased that I’d been a benefactor for Dexter Bullard even though I didn’t get to work with Bob at Chestnut Lodge. We have collaborated over the years in a variety of other situations. He is a truly outstanding person and I’ve taken great pleasure in watching his steady growth to this present position of leadership and recognition.”
CHESTNUT
The
LODGE
busy
resident
write books and Chestnut Lodge, this
somehow
managed
to find
time
lyrics for the annual staff musicals and his interest in music continues
to
at to
day.
A memorable patient of the Chestnut Lodge years was Miss H.L., a remarkably docile and untroublesome patient except for one unfortunate habit: she was given to stuffing towels into the toilets and flushing them. The results were major plumbing crises that necessitated digging up pipes all over the grounds to remove the blockages. It must have been something of a relief when she was transferred to Sheppard and Enoch Pratt Hospital. Years later, when Bob was directing major reconstruction of the aging Sheppard and Enoch Pratt plant and the grounds looked like a
ROBERT
World War I battlefield, the medical director of Chestnut Lodge paid a visit. Looking over the trenches, craters, and piles of rubble that disfigured the grounds, he commented, “I see you still have Miss H.L. with you.” During his time at Chestnut Lodge, Bob worked on an intensive Schizophrenia
patient study which and the Need-Fear
was the Dilemma
basis
for
a book of which he was a co-author. The work is a major contribution to our understanding of the psychological aspects of the illness in a time when advances in our knowledge of the biological problems involved tend to be getting most ofourattention. Taking the broad view is characteristic of Bob Gibson.
SHEPPARD
AND
ENOCH
PRATT
In 1960 Bob became director of clinical Sheppard and Enoch Pratt Hospital. Three as the fourth medical director, he assumed ity for the complete administration of this chiatric
hospital.
(Two
ofhis
predecessors,
Brush, M.D., and Ross McC. served as Presidents of APA.) the history of the institution, mentally ill for more than 70 people, the day of the private over. “The Sheppard,” once miles
from
Baltimore,
,
was
services at years later, responsibilprivate psyEdward
N.
Chapman, M.D., had It was a critical time in which had served the years. To many medical psychiatric hospital was a country hospital eight
being
engulfed
by
Balti-
more’s spreading suburbs and by the rapidly growing town of Towson. There was a strong feeling that the hospital should sell off most of its 400 acres of now valuable land to housing developers and build a small hospital in one corner of the remaining property. The real estate sale would endow such a small hospital comfortably for years to come. However, the new medical director convinced the trustees to advance rather than retreat. The Gibson dream was of an expanded institution offering the best of inpatient care, research, community service, and the training of mental health professionals. The original structures, dating from 1853, underwent major remodeling (I). New programs and procedures were initiated, and the hospital was on the march. Land was sold to the Greater Baltimore Medical Center, St. Joseph’s General Hospital, and Towson State College. Gibson was responsible for the establishment of a committee that supervised the cooperative efforts of these institutions with Sheppard Pratt, all working on common problems and on programs of mutual support. The hospital provided psychiatric educational programs to the Greater Baltimore Medical Center and received aid from the center in maintaining the Sheppard Pratt crisis clinic. St. Joseph’s helped in various community mental health programs and in the provision of prompt medical care. Sheppard Pratt provided psychiatric assistance to the students and faculty of Towson State College and clinical experience to Towson psychology students. A
S.
GARBER
joint Towson-Sheppard training program for mental health workers now leads to a Bachelor of Science degree and to certification as a mental health technician. The Gibson approach stressed the traditional role of the treatment hospital, providing psychotherapy based on the life experiences of the patients and on their need to integrate themselves into their communities. A team approach was initiated, and the numbers of psychiatric residents, social workers, and occupational therapists increased. Training for psychiatric nurses was carried out in cooperation with nearby community colleges. Although himself a fully trained psychoanalyst, serving as Washington
training and Psychoanalytic
supervising Institute,
analyst of the Bob has been
open to all valid developments in psychiatry. Sheppard Pratt uses a wide variety of treatment modalities in treating both adult and juvenile patients. The number ofpatients admitted doubled, as did the number of physicians in training. The burgeoning staff of social workers more than doubled their services to neighboring hospitals, colleges, and the community-atlarge. New programs have also involved the hospital with
correctional
schools,
clinics,
police
training
schools, and community mental health centers. The number of long-term patients steadily decreased, replaced by adolescents and children coming for treatment. Bob led the child guidance program in its expansion to a five-day service for children 5 to 12 years old who were too disturbed to attend inpatient service was initiated for the same
school. An age group;
the program took over part of a building that had once been filled with long-term adult patients. A high school and ajunior high, which share the structure, have been accredited
by the
Maryland
Department
of Education.
Another structure, once used to house nursing students from distant areas, became available when the nursing trainees began coming from local colleges and so could commute from their homes. Again walls came down, pipes went in, and wiring was overhauled as another building was reshaped to accommodate more of the director’s new programs. For several years it looked as ifnot Dr. Gibson but Miss H.L. was the busiest
person
at Sheppard
Pratt!
His reorganization of Sheppard Pratt had much to do with his receiving the Edward A. Strecker Award, given by the Institute of the Pennsylvania Hospital each year to “a young psychiatrist who has contributed the most in the field of psychiatry.” That also seems
an
appropriate
description
of
the
man
whose
progressive ideas, organizational ability, and strength of purpose were instrumental in Sheppard Pratt’s receiving the APA Hospital and Community Psychiatry Gold Achievement Award in 1972 “for demonstrating that a private hospital can modify its traditional role and become a catalyst in the development of community services.” We come back to speculating about his early contact with
worked
magic
with
and
Bob Am
the
mysterious:
those
who
Gibson
at Sheppard
Pratt
J Psychiatry
134:7,
1977
July
have
wonder 733
ROBERT
W.
GIBSON,
M.D.
out loud how it is that so many of his prophecies things to come have materialized in exactly he has predicted. The vice-president of the and Enoch Pratt board of trustees describes person who can keep more balls in the air fewer than anyone he has ever encountered.
COMMUNITY
AND
Witness
PROFESSIONAL
his involvements
profession
that
about the ways Sheppard Bob as a and drop
to sustain
and
in addition
the
to his
work at Sheppard Pratt. He was the first chairman of the APA Commission on Standards of Practice and Third Party Payment, was chairman of the Advisory Council to the Maryland Comprehensive Health Planning Agency, a consultant to the Maryland Medical Assistance Program, treasurer of the Maryland Health Maintenance Committee, and was recently appointed to the newly formed State Health Coordinating Council.
He
has
been
a frequent
spokesman
before
The diamond noteworthy
together
Ives
Eisenberg,
jubilee event. Hendrick,
Martin,
Sarah
of a famous
mental
When
at the same
Larry
Kubie,
Tower,
Harold
Wagner,
Searles,
son,
is in Brody,
a
host of brilliant discussants, and allows them free rein to express their observations, it then becomes a not-to-beforgotten occasion. Crosscurrents records that event and recalls
its brilliance.
(2)
Dr. Gibson served as president of.the National Association of Private Psychiatric Hospitals and was a Trustee-at-Large and Secretary of the American Psychiatric Association before being chosen our President. In his introduction of Bob at the 1976 Institute on Hospital and Community Psychiatry, APA Medical Director Melvin Sabshin, M.D., commented: “It is noteworthy in this age of accountability that Dr. Gibson has been elected to national office in the APA by popular vote in five contested elections.” As Secretary he was an active member of the Executive Committee. A fellow member of that 1972 committee recalls, “What stands out in my mind is his very even temperament, which seems to be consistent no matter how much confusion there may be around him or even possibly stress within him. He always maintains his objectivity and at the same time that he is serious he can add a light, humorous touch to break the tension. Thinking over the many years that I have known him, the phrase 734
Am J Psychiatry
/34:7,
July
1977
the
issues
at hand
and
.
never
seems
to lose
while
encouraging
individuality.” ‘ ‘
it brings and
on
.
The president emeritus of Sheppard and Enoch Pratt’s board of trustees comments: From twelve fruitful years of association I can say that Robert W. Gibson is a driver who puts his dreams and plans into reality by careful objective actions, winning hearty support from his associates and ever expanding his own experience and outlook. One by one, many of his dreams and goals have become realities, and the end is not in sight.” Many of his associates cite his ability to delegate responsibility as one of his finer talents; that may explain how he manages to keep so many balls in the air. Moving the imagery from theater to sports, we can say that once the ball has been handed offby Quarterback Gib-
corn-
hospital time
cusing
direction
mittees of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, and the only psychiatrist to be made a Fellow of the Association ofMental Health Administrators. Somehow he has also managed to do clinical research; for example, he was principal investigator for an Office of Naval Research Project comparing the family background and early life experiences of manic-depressive and schizophrenic patients. He also was editor of the book marking Sheppard and Enoch Pratt’s 75thanniversary (2). FrancisJ. Braceland, M.D., wrote about this book: itselfa
.
sight of them.” The Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry has also benefited from his service-as a committee member, and committee chairman, and now presidentelect. As chairman of the Ginsberg Fellowship Committee, he was described by a fellow member as “one who showed us the value of teamwork and the art of having fun while learning. He also managed to provide
ACTIVITIES
in the community
he manages
‘he wears well’ comes to my mind. I have never seen him act in a petty fashion, nor has he seemed to be motivated by his own needs for power or whatever propels him; instead he has always seemed to be fo-
the
receiver
can
count
on
the
play
caller’s
insis-
tence on knowing where the play is at all times and whether the play is advancing, being blocked, or pushed back. And always there is the acknowledgment of the man’s great good humor. In the midst of an endless debate at an APA Board of Trustees meeting, part of the committee took a rest-room break, which Bob welcorned with the comment, “At least in here people seem to know what they’re doing.” He seems to have an inexhaustible repertoire of songs, which he is not reluctant to share with amiable assemblages. He also writes poems of the Ogden Nash school. And none who were there will ever forget the costume party of the National Association of Private Psychiatric Hospitals, when the only totally unguessable guest was an African witch doctor in full robe, feathers, magic wand, and animal tail. No one figured out who the masked dancer was until Bob took off the mask and accounted for the authenticity of his garb, which had been a gift to Moses Sheppard from a Liberian chieftain. Shades of The Shadow!
THE
PRIVATE
SIDE
There is also a private Bob Gibson, husband of Gwen and father of Robert, Jr., Christopher, and Peggy. Determined not to deprive his family of his attention no matter what the professional pressures, Bob has taken on a few more jobs to juggle, such as troop physician for his sons’ Boy Scout troop and chairman
ROBERT
of their camping up with elaborate sons
camping,
committee. excuses Bob
When other fathers for not accompanying
threatened
to recruit
mothers.
came their He
took a ribbing about his attempt to spend weekends in the woods with the women and his supposed disappointment
when
the
other
fathers
were
shamed
into
showing up. Bob and Gwen have produced three winners in Robert, Jr. a Baltimore probation officer working on his master’s degree in psychology; Christopher, on duty with the Navy in Pearl Harbor; and Peggy, a Western Maryland freshman planning to be a physical therapist whose healing talents are now lavished on her thriving plants and Polish rabbits. Gwen sees herself as one of those women raised to perform well in one sort of role, then moved by ,
changes in the has maintained
fective worked come balls
script to learn a whole her early commitment
wife, mother, out her own
and homemaker professional goals.
quite a juggler herself, in the air while tossing
new part. She to being an ef-
as she She has
has be-
keeping all the home front in a B.A. from Towson
College, a master’s degree from Johns Hopkins, ajob at the Baltimore City Psychiatric Day Care Center, activities for the Maryland Art Therapy Association, and the tasks of treasurer and program chairman of the American Art Therapy Association. No one who knows the Gibsons is without praise for the way Gwen has played helpmeet in Bob’s professional and personal life-mother of a fine family and newborn professional
in the
Gwen’s
changing
comments
“outside
about
world.”
Bob
make
him
seem
al-
S.
GARBER
most without flaw. Almost. He does have a failing, she reports. He goes into culture shock when they travel. When a Peruvian asked him in Spanish for directions to some point in Lima, he stammered, “I don’t speak English.” And when a passerby did the same in England, Bob replied in a British accent. Despite this wife’s eye view ofGibson the Traveler, an eminent Past President of this organization describes Bob in this way: “He looks like, acts like, talks like, and is the kind of a guy that you would like to have represent psychiatry anywhere.” He has done just that as President of the American Psychiatric Association for 1976-1977. Your author stands overwhelmed by the catalogue of admiring adjectives he has accumulated in the interviews for this article: “serious, thoughtful, logical, decisive, articulate, clearthinking, compassionate, considerate, professional, trust-evoking, strong-willed, flexible, amiable”; and from his mother: “driving and insatiably curious.” The writer can only say in summation that it is an honor to have worked with Bob Gibson over the years and to have had him as our President this year. To quote Virgil in his description of a hero of his times, “Quantum instar ipso est”: None but himself can be his parallel. REFERENCES
I. Forbush B: The Sheppard & Enoch Pratt Hospital 1853-1970: History. Philadelphia, JB Lippincott Co, 1971 2. Gibson RW (ed): Crosscurrents in Psychiatry and Psychoanalysis. Philadelphia, JB Lippincott Co, 1967
Am
J Psychiatry
/34:7,
July
/977
A
735
W.
One BY
Gibson,
Hundred
ROBERT
M.D.
and
S. GARBER,
“INDIVIDUALLY
Fifth
President,
1976-1977
M.D.
AND
we must
COLLECTIVELY
It is a pleasure
demon-
strate through responsible action that psychiatry is a profession worthy of the public trust. These words state in a nutshell the philosophy of the man who has just completed his term as one hundred and fifth Presi‘ ‘
dent
of
the
American
Psychiatric
Association.
But
such a philosophy did not emerge full-blown when he assumed the badge of office in May 1976. Roots of his responsible, public-spiritedattitude were manifest
early
in Robert
discernible
the most and took
moved
prestigious a major
activities,
and father movers
W. Gibson’s
as he
and
Getting
life and
into
the
were
even
leadership
more
of one
becoming
a successful
and a friend
and colleague
ofa
husband
wide
circle
of
shakers.
to where
Brown
Gibson, was and a free-lance and
the
involved
the expected
occult.
factors-and also perGibson’s father, Walter a reporter on the Philadelphia
writer In
1931
of books he
would
out
Many people acknowledge Mrs. Robert
a former APA President, is President and Chief the Carrier Clinic Foundation, Belle Mead, N.J. supplied material used in this biographical their help with thanks. I am especially grateful W. Gibson, and to the following: E. Carlton
to report
updated
in the hearts
How
that
Lamont
reassuring
Walter
Gibson
Cranston
to
of men
in these
to know
that
has
tell
us
perilous both
re-
what
seven-
Bob
Gibson
and
Lamont Cranston are on the job now! Mrs. Walter Gibson, the former Charlotte Wagner, had interrupted her plans to become a professional singer in swimmer,
order to she gave
athletics.
ment
she
the
many
ous
teams
marry and raise a family. her son Bob her love ofboth
Bob
gave
remembers
him
hours
story,
she
invested
he joined
she
vividly
in his efforts
the
to excel
has
and
A fine music
encourageat sports
and
the
van-
in transporting
to competitions.
him on in his studies hopes to be a physician.
early a
Execu08502. sketch. I to Gwen, Abbott,
Ph.D., Leo H. Bartemeier, M.D., Walter E. Barton, M.D., Francis J. Braceland, M.D., Dexter M. Bullard, Sr., M.D., Robert A. Cohen, M.D., Bliss Forbush, LL.D., Benjamin H. Kesert, M.D., R. Walter Locher, W. Berkeley Mann, John C. Ritchie III, M.D., Lewis L.
Robbins, M.D., Melvin Sabshin, M.D.,John C. Sonne, M.D., Robert E. Switzer, M.D., Perry C. Talkington, M.D., Mark M. Walter, Jr., M.D., and Michael Zales, M.D.
lurks
in those
on mystery, turn
and
She
also
urged
was a strong backer of his Still a major force in the Gib-
recently
emerged
from
a bout
of bad
health and is reported to be once more in fine fettle. Bob’s magical background comes through in the comments ofthe many people whose lives touched his
mystery story whose hero was a debonair man-abouttown given to solving heinous crimes in his spare time. “The Shadow” became one ofthe most popular series of magazine stories ever published and the basis of the enormously successful radio show many of us remember from our younger days. An excellent amateur magician, Mr. Gibson was a confidant of Houdini, Raymond, Thurston, and Blackstone, and coached young Bob in the tricks of the trade. Growing up with Lamont Cranston for a sibling and famed prestidigitators for family friends has to have had an impact on the hero of this tale. Dr. Garber, tive Officer,
ties.
son
he is today
hereditary and environmental haps a little magic. Robert Ledger magic,
evil
and
of
psychiatric hospitals in the nation role in community and professional
meanwhile
vived
days,
growing-up
on. Jack
One
years.
The
cited
another
cohort
Armstrong.
the
all-American
his
contemporaries
boy, and
charisma
radio
“Right
from
making
straight
elders,
and
the
was
hero first,
As, excelling
evident
of those he
was
charming in foot-
ball, wrestling and track.” Being a guard, as he was in those days ofone-platoon single-wing play, could have helped him acquire the strength he has shown in his career-every
other
play
went
over
the
guard
in those
days. Recognition came early: he was president of his high school class and of the student council and made the Pennsylvania State wrestling finals. A younger stepbrother recalls, “He was bigger than I was and could beat the tar out of me. But I respected Bob because he took the time to help me to be an athlete good enough to play with him and his friends.” His mother described him as a boy who never wasted any time. “He was a driver and spent his time on his books, reaching out in many lines as if seeking to find out what would interest him most.” The superintendent of his high school remembers clearly an incident when Bob was asked by a teacher why he had elected to take five major subjects instead of the required four. He answered, “Well, it’s there and I might as well take advantage of it.” That was one of the considerations that led the principal to declare Am
J Psychiatiy
/34:7,
July
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731
ROBERT
W.
GIBSON,
M.D.
Bob Gibson one of the ten best students who ever graduated from Lansdowne High School. Bob was ahead of the recent surge of students interested in filmmaking, having become an accomplished filmmaker in the forties. He did the shooting, editing, and splicing ofhis own action films, the most adventurous of which was shot from the front seat of a toboggan racing down a slide at Lake Placid. His interest in filmmaking may have been cooled somewhat when he tried to shoot an oncoming snowball and got it full in the face.
COLLEGE
AND
MEDICAL
SCHOOL
Bob went to Lafayette, serving as president of the freshman class and becoming Middle Atlantic States light heavyweight wrestling champion. The accelerated Navy V-l2 course moved him on to Swarthmore and to service as a corpsman at the Philadelphia Naval Hospital. The young man showed his considerable ingenuity and organizational ability when he promoted a back-rubbing contest among the nurses. He and another corpsman served as judges of the various contestants’ skills; the only way they could do that was to themselves become the “rubbees.” Girl-gathering
activities
stopped
soon
afterwards,
when Bob gathered in a wife, marrying Gwendolyn Locke after his first year of medical school. Only one other of Bob’s school classmates was destined to become a physician, and he was Bob’s best friend, Gwen’s date prior to Bob, and the one who introduced the future Dr. and Mrs. Gibson. After the introduction Bob made his interest in Gwen known to his friend and the competition was on. Bob notes that both men became psychiatrists and that it was Gwen’s influence that was behind this. Gwen claims to have wondered for years whether that was a compliment or an insult! When Bob and Gwen arrived at the University of Pennsylvania Medical School, married students were still exceedingly rare birds. He was the first married man to be president of Alpha Kappa Kappa, and he and Gwen were in great demand as chaperones for fraternity parties; the rules stated only that chaperones must be married couples, not that they had to be old folks. One wonders how inclined the young newlyweds were to break up the couples who retreated to dark corners of the fraternity house. Bob’s skills as magician and craftsman are remembered by his Penn classmates. Card-playing cronies often wondered if legerdemain was a factor in his extraordinary winning streaks, but one of his often beaten friends thinks it was just skill. He recalls that Bob could replay bridge hands days later, remembering each card and the exact order of the play. Gibson resourcefulness benefited both the fraternity and the Gibsons when Bob and his stepbrother took on the job of remodeling the fraternity house kitchen. Neither of them knew one end of a hammer from the other, but the fraternity was tight on funds and so were the Gibsons. Operating at night so the building in732
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spectors wouldn’t get wind of the amateurs at work, the brothers did the job in exchange for free board. Bob and Gwen recall eating free at the house for two and a half years, since no one was quite sure when the debt was finally paid.
ENTRY
INTO
PSYCHIATRY
Because of his accelerated program Bob graduated three months ahead of the time his internship was to begin and spent that time on the staffofTrenton State Hospital. The writer, then assistant director at Trenton, had made him an offer he couldn’t refuse: $250 a month, a furnished apartment, and ajob for Gwen. It was
a fateful
time
for
the
profession
and
a memorable
period for the writer, who watched Bob’s growing involvement in the plight of the psychiatric patient. A former classmate recalls his own years on a biochemistry
then ture. were been
fellowship
when
he
talked
with
Bob,
by
doing his residency, about their plans for the fu“I remember Bob talking then about how people basically good, but that their goodness had often blocked from developing because of events
which
had
made
them
into
hostile
or
mixed-up
people.” Colleagues in his later career confirm that he has maintained that basic faith in the goodness of human nature. We can be pleased that this view of humankind rather than The Shadow’s sinister opinion prevailed in his thinking. While he was on duty at the Bethesda Naval Hospital, Bob was recruited for residency at Chestnut Lodge. The recruiter was then tapped himself for the National
Institute
of
Mental
Health.
“I
told
myself
that I should be pleased that I’d been a benefactor for Dexter Bullard even though I didn’t get to work with Bob at Chestnut Lodge. We have collaborated over the years in a variety of other situations. He is a truly outstanding person and I’ve taken great pleasure in watching his steady growth to this present position of leadership and recognition.”
CHESTNUT
The
LODGE
busy
resident
write books and Chestnut Lodge, this
somehow
managed
to find
time
lyrics for the annual staff musicals and his interest in music continues
to
at to
day.
A memorable patient of the Chestnut Lodge years was Miss H.L., a remarkably docile and untroublesome patient except for one unfortunate habit: she was given to stuffing towels into the toilets and flushing them. The results were major plumbing crises that necessitated digging up pipes all over the grounds to remove the blockages. It must have been something of a relief when she was transferred to Sheppard and Enoch Pratt Hospital. Years later, when Bob was directing major reconstruction of the aging Sheppard and Enoch Pratt plant and the grounds looked like a
ROBERT
World War I battlefield, the medical director of Chestnut Lodge paid a visit. Looking over the trenches, craters, and piles of rubble that disfigured the grounds, he commented, “I see you still have Miss H.L. with you.” During his time at Chestnut Lodge, Bob worked on an intensive Schizophrenia
patient study which and the Need-Fear
was the Dilemma
basis
for
a book of which he was a co-author. The work is a major contribution to our understanding of the psychological aspects of the illness in a time when advances in our knowledge of the biological problems involved tend to be getting most ofourattention. Taking the broad view is characteristic of Bob Gibson.
SHEPPARD
AND
ENOCH
PRATT
In 1960 Bob became director of clinical Sheppard and Enoch Pratt Hospital. Three as the fourth medical director, he assumed ity for the complete administration of this chiatric
hospital.
(Two
ofhis
predecessors,
Brush, M.D., and Ross McC. served as Presidents of APA.) the history of the institution, mentally ill for more than 70 people, the day of the private over. “The Sheppard,” once miles
from
Baltimore,
,
was
services at years later, responsibilprivate psyEdward
N.
Chapman, M.D., had It was a critical time in which had served the years. To many medical psychiatric hospital was a country hospital eight
being
engulfed
by
Balti-
more’s spreading suburbs and by the rapidly growing town of Towson. There was a strong feeling that the hospital should sell off most of its 400 acres of now valuable land to housing developers and build a small hospital in one corner of the remaining property. The real estate sale would endow such a small hospital comfortably for years to come. However, the new medical director convinced the trustees to advance rather than retreat. The Gibson dream was of an expanded institution offering the best of inpatient care, research, community service, and the training of mental health professionals. The original structures, dating from 1853, underwent major remodeling (I). New programs and procedures were initiated, and the hospital was on the march. Land was sold to the Greater Baltimore Medical Center, St. Joseph’s General Hospital, and Towson State College. Gibson was responsible for the establishment of a committee that supervised the cooperative efforts of these institutions with Sheppard Pratt, all working on common problems and on programs of mutual support. The hospital provided psychiatric educational programs to the Greater Baltimore Medical Center and received aid from the center in maintaining the Sheppard Pratt crisis clinic. St. Joseph’s helped in various community mental health programs and in the provision of prompt medical care. Sheppard Pratt provided psychiatric assistance to the students and faculty of Towson State College and clinical experience to Towson psychology students. A
S.
GARBER
joint Towson-Sheppard training program for mental health workers now leads to a Bachelor of Science degree and to certification as a mental health technician. The Gibson approach stressed the traditional role of the treatment hospital, providing psychotherapy based on the life experiences of the patients and on their need to integrate themselves into their communities. A team approach was initiated, and the numbers of psychiatric residents, social workers, and occupational therapists increased. Training for psychiatric nurses was carried out in cooperation with nearby community colleges. Although himself a fully trained psychoanalyst, serving as Washington
training and Psychoanalytic
supervising Institute,
analyst of the Bob has been
open to all valid developments in psychiatry. Sheppard Pratt uses a wide variety of treatment modalities in treating both adult and juvenile patients. The number ofpatients admitted doubled, as did the number of physicians in training. The burgeoning staff of social workers more than doubled their services to neighboring hospitals, colleges, and the community-atlarge. New programs have also involved the hospital with
correctional
schools,
clinics,
police
training
schools, and community mental health centers. The number of long-term patients steadily decreased, replaced by adolescents and children coming for treatment. Bob led the child guidance program in its expansion to a five-day service for children 5 to 12 years old who were too disturbed to attend inpatient service was initiated for the same
school. An age group;
the program took over part of a building that had once been filled with long-term adult patients. A high school and ajunior high, which share the structure, have been accredited
by the
Maryland
Department
of Education.
Another structure, once used to house nursing students from distant areas, became available when the nursing trainees began coming from local colleges and so could commute from their homes. Again walls came down, pipes went in, and wiring was overhauled as another building was reshaped to accommodate more of the director’s new programs. For several years it looked as ifnot Dr. Gibson but Miss H.L. was the busiest
person
at Sheppard
Pratt!
His reorganization of Sheppard Pratt had much to do with his receiving the Edward A. Strecker Award, given by the Institute of the Pennsylvania Hospital each year to “a young psychiatrist who has contributed the most in the field of psychiatry.” That also seems
an
appropriate
description
of
the
man
whose
progressive ideas, organizational ability, and strength of purpose were instrumental in Sheppard Pratt’s receiving the APA Hospital and Community Psychiatry Gold Achievement Award in 1972 “for demonstrating that a private hospital can modify its traditional role and become a catalyst in the development of community services.” We come back to speculating about his early contact with
worked
magic
with
and
Bob Am
the
mysterious:
those
who
Gibson
at Sheppard
Pratt
J Psychiatry
134:7,
1977
July
have
wonder 733
ROBERT
W.
GIBSON,
M.D.
out loud how it is that so many of his prophecies things to come have materialized in exactly he has predicted. The vice-president of the and Enoch Pratt board of trustees describes person who can keep more balls in the air fewer than anyone he has ever encountered.
COMMUNITY
AND
Witness
PROFESSIONAL
his involvements
profession
that
about the ways Sheppard Bob as a and drop
to sustain
and
in addition
the
to his
work at Sheppard Pratt. He was the first chairman of the APA Commission on Standards of Practice and Third Party Payment, was chairman of the Advisory Council to the Maryland Comprehensive Health Planning Agency, a consultant to the Maryland Medical Assistance Program, treasurer of the Maryland Health Maintenance Committee, and was recently appointed to the newly formed State Health Coordinating Council.
He
has
been
a frequent
spokesman
before
The diamond noteworthy
together
Ives
Eisenberg,
jubilee event. Hendrick,
Martin,
Sarah
of a famous
mental
When
at the same
Larry
Kubie,
Tower,
Harold
Wagner,
Searles,
son,
is in Brody,
a
host of brilliant discussants, and allows them free rein to express their observations, it then becomes a not-to-beforgotten occasion. Crosscurrents records that event and recalls
its brilliance.
(2)
Dr. Gibson served as president of.the National Association of Private Psychiatric Hospitals and was a Trustee-at-Large and Secretary of the American Psychiatric Association before being chosen our President. In his introduction of Bob at the 1976 Institute on Hospital and Community Psychiatry, APA Medical Director Melvin Sabshin, M.D., commented: “It is noteworthy in this age of accountability that Dr. Gibson has been elected to national office in the APA by popular vote in five contested elections.” As Secretary he was an active member of the Executive Committee. A fellow member of that 1972 committee recalls, “What stands out in my mind is his very even temperament, which seems to be consistent no matter how much confusion there may be around him or even possibly stress within him. He always maintains his objectivity and at the same time that he is serious he can add a light, humorous touch to break the tension. Thinking over the many years that I have known him, the phrase 734
Am J Psychiatry
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1977
the
issues
at hand
and
.
never
seems
to lose
while
encouraging
individuality.” ‘ ‘
it brings and
on
.
The president emeritus of Sheppard and Enoch Pratt’s board of trustees comments: From twelve fruitful years of association I can say that Robert W. Gibson is a driver who puts his dreams and plans into reality by careful objective actions, winning hearty support from his associates and ever expanding his own experience and outlook. One by one, many of his dreams and goals have become realities, and the end is not in sight.” Many of his associates cite his ability to delegate responsibility as one of his finer talents; that may explain how he manages to keep so many balls in the air. Moving the imagery from theater to sports, we can say that once the ball has been handed offby Quarterback Gib-
corn-
hospital time
cusing
direction
mittees of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, and the only psychiatrist to be made a Fellow of the Association ofMental Health Administrators. Somehow he has also managed to do clinical research; for example, he was principal investigator for an Office of Naval Research Project comparing the family background and early life experiences of manic-depressive and schizophrenic patients. He also was editor of the book marking Sheppard and Enoch Pratt’s 75thanniversary (2). FrancisJ. Braceland, M.D., wrote about this book: itselfa
.
sight of them.” The Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry has also benefited from his service-as a committee member, and committee chairman, and now presidentelect. As chairman of the Ginsberg Fellowship Committee, he was described by a fellow member as “one who showed us the value of teamwork and the art of having fun while learning. He also managed to provide
ACTIVITIES
in the community
he manages
‘he wears well’ comes to my mind. I have never seen him act in a petty fashion, nor has he seemed to be motivated by his own needs for power or whatever propels him; instead he has always seemed to be fo-
the
receiver
can
count
on
the
play
caller’s
insis-
tence on knowing where the play is at all times and whether the play is advancing, being blocked, or pushed back. And always there is the acknowledgment of the man’s great good humor. In the midst of an endless debate at an APA Board of Trustees meeting, part of the committee took a rest-room break, which Bob welcorned with the comment, “At least in here people seem to know what they’re doing.” He seems to have an inexhaustible repertoire of songs, which he is not reluctant to share with amiable assemblages. He also writes poems of the Ogden Nash school. And none who were there will ever forget the costume party of the National Association of Private Psychiatric Hospitals, when the only totally unguessable guest was an African witch doctor in full robe, feathers, magic wand, and animal tail. No one figured out who the masked dancer was until Bob took off the mask and accounted for the authenticity of his garb, which had been a gift to Moses Sheppard from a Liberian chieftain. Shades of The Shadow!
THE
PRIVATE
SIDE
There is also a private Bob Gibson, husband of Gwen and father of Robert, Jr., Christopher, and Peggy. Determined not to deprive his family of his attention no matter what the professional pressures, Bob has taken on a few more jobs to juggle, such as troop physician for his sons’ Boy Scout troop and chairman
ROBERT
of their camping up with elaborate sons
camping,
committee. excuses Bob
When other fathers for not accompanying
threatened
to recruit
mothers.
came their He
took a ribbing about his attempt to spend weekends in the woods with the women and his supposed disappointment
when
the
other
fathers
were
shamed
into
showing up. Bob and Gwen have produced three winners in Robert, Jr. a Baltimore probation officer working on his master’s degree in psychology; Christopher, on duty with the Navy in Pearl Harbor; and Peggy, a Western Maryland freshman planning to be a physical therapist whose healing talents are now lavished on her thriving plants and Polish rabbits. Gwen sees herself as one of those women raised to perform well in one sort of role, then moved by ,
changes in the has maintained
fective worked come balls
script to learn a whole her early commitment
wife, mother, out her own
and homemaker professional goals.
quite a juggler herself, in the air while tossing
new part. She to being an ef-
as she She has
has be-
keeping all the home front in a B.A. from Towson
College, a master’s degree from Johns Hopkins, ajob at the Baltimore City Psychiatric Day Care Center, activities for the Maryland Art Therapy Association, and the tasks of treasurer and program chairman of the American Art Therapy Association. No one who knows the Gibsons is without praise for the way Gwen has played helpmeet in Bob’s professional and personal life-mother of a fine family and newborn professional
in the
Gwen’s
changing
comments
“outside
about
world.”
Bob
make
him
seem
al-
S.
GARBER
most without flaw. Almost. He does have a failing, she reports. He goes into culture shock when they travel. When a Peruvian asked him in Spanish for directions to some point in Lima, he stammered, “I don’t speak English.” And when a passerby did the same in England, Bob replied in a British accent. Despite this wife’s eye view ofGibson the Traveler, an eminent Past President of this organization describes Bob in this way: “He looks like, acts like, talks like, and is the kind of a guy that you would like to have represent psychiatry anywhere.” He has done just that as President of the American Psychiatric Association for 1976-1977. Your author stands overwhelmed by the catalogue of admiring adjectives he has accumulated in the interviews for this article: “serious, thoughtful, logical, decisive, articulate, clearthinking, compassionate, considerate, professional, trust-evoking, strong-willed, flexible, amiable”; and from his mother: “driving and insatiably curious.” The writer can only say in summation that it is an honor to have worked with Bob Gibson over the years and to have had him as our President this year. To quote Virgil in his description of a hero of his times, “Quantum instar ipso est”: None but himself can be his parallel. REFERENCES
I. Forbush B: The Sheppard & Enoch Pratt Hospital 1853-1970: History. Philadelphia, JB Lippincott Co, 1971 2. Gibson RW (ed): Crosscurrents in Psychiatry and Psychoanalysis. Philadelphia, JB Lippincott Co, 1967
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